Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has denounced his older sister’s bid to run for Prime Minister in Thailand’s election in a statement on Friday, 8 February 2019.

Princess Ubolratana Mahidol, aged 67, was nominated as a candidate for the Thaksin-alled Thai Raksa Chart Party, until the King intervened more than 12 hours later, saying it was ‘inappropriate’.

The Thai Royal Family, according to the constitution, must stay above politics and this act would ‘defy the nation’s culture.’

Princess Ubolratana Mahidol was born on 5 April 1951 in Lausanne, Switzerland, the eldest child of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit.

Although she has filled out the necessary paperwork to relinquish all her royal titles when she married an American commoner, Peter Jensen, in 1972 and lived in the United States with their three children.

However, the couple divorced in 1998 and Princess Ubolratana Mahidol moved permanently back to Thailand in 2001 and is said to live as a member of the Chakra Dynasty, not as a commoner as claimed when speaking to the media.